The reported proficiency rate for English language arts is 75%.
Original Research by School Decision on The Soulard School
The Soulard School is a public charter school serving kindergarten through fifth grade in St. Louis, Missouri. It operates as a tuition-free elementary school open to families across the city, and its charter was renewed for a substantial term beginning in 2024, which provides stability for the years ahead. The school is small, with an enrollment spread fairly evenly across each grade level. The student body is predominantly white, with Black students and students of two or more races each making up a meaningful share, and a smaller Hispanic population. This composition is a plain characteristic of the school and reflects the specific community it draws from.
State testing data for the 2024-25 school year is mostly suppressed, which is common for small schools where reporting exact results could identify individual students. The one test result that was reported came from third-grade English language arts, where most students scored at the proficient level or above. That single reported score ranks at the top of the distribution when compared with other districts in St. Louis city. For all other tested subjects and grade levels, the state did not release proficiency rates, so a parent cannot see a full picture of academic performance from that data alone. The school serves grades that are tested in Missouri, so the lack of reported results is not due to an untested grade band; it is a function of the small size of each tested group. A parent may want to ask the school directly for its internal assessment results and for how it tracks student progress across the elementary years.
The Soulard School is its own district, which is an unusual governance structure for a single elementary school. This means it operates independently rather than as part of a larger district bureaucracy, though it must still meet state charter requirements. The school’s location in the city of St. Louis puts it in a diverse urban setting with a wide range of cultural and civic institutions, including major parks, museums, and research universities that anchor the local economy. The St. Louis housing market near the school shows home values and rents that sit above the national typical home value, and rents have been rising at a faster clip than the national average in recent months, which is something for a family to weigh when considering moving into the area.
The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report. Data on free or reduced-price meal eligibility, special education services, and English learner supports were not available in the data reviewed, nor was information on chronic absenteeism or discipline. Without those figures, it is harder to assess the level of economic diversity in the student body or the scope of student support services. A family considering the school should inquire about these areas directly. Overall, The Soulard School offers a small, tuition-free elementary option in St. Louis with a stable charter renewal behind it, a student body that is not especially diverse economically or racially compared to many city schools, and a state testing picture that is mostly opaque due to small class sizes. It fits a family looking for an intimate, independent charter elementary school who is prepared to ask the school for the details the public data does not provide.
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